When?

I remember life with three littles.  When the Spud was born, I had "three under three."  With a 2 1/2 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn, the days just sort of blended into each other.  I felt tired all the time without really feeling like I had done anything all day.  Outings were exhausting and required the use of a double stroller and baby carrier.  Memories of this time are a bit hazy, but I am pretty sure that meals were very repetitive and came out of a box more than once a week.  I think it's safe to say that life was very busy. 

Yet somehow, in that first year of the Spud's life, I managed to write 184 blog posts.  Blogging was a kind of release for me, a stress reliever if you will.  I'm not sure when I did all that blogging.  It certainly wasn't naptime, as none of my children have been good nappers. 

I miss that sense of satisfaction that comes from typing out your heart and mind.  Lately blog posts have been sporadic at best, and I long to return to the days of the 184 blog posts. So I took a look at my life to see where on earth I could fit in this once-enjoyed passion of writing. (Hold on a second, I am sending the three oldest downstairs to "play nicely together" and scattering cereal on the living room floor for the baby in an attempt to keep them occupied while I write this...)

Here's my typical day. (and of course all SAHM's know that no day is "typical")  I try to get up around 6:30 am (hopefully before the baby and the breakfast-demanding kids).  If fortunate enough to arise before the flood of children storms the dining room, I make myself coffee and have my devotional time.  More often than not, the kids are already up;  so I find myself making everyone breakfast, feeding the baby, and reading my Bible in snatches in between.  It's not ideal, but at least it's happening.  The kids then "dress themselves" with a lot of help from me.  I also use this time to make bread (if we need it that day) and get some laundry going. 

By 9:00 am, we start school.  The kids are not at the age where they can do most of their school work on their own.  Bible, math, and reading are finished by 10:15 ish unless we get carried away with the books we are reading.  We take a quick break then with popcorn and drinks.  The kids read books or play with toys while I dive into coffee #2 and check facebook or something else equally important.  Handwriting, history, and science follow the break.  I then make lunch and change out laundry loads while the Drama Queen works on her grammar, creative writing, and spelling.

If all is going well, we will eat lunch by noon.  Somehow in the craziness of morning, Little Sprout has hopefully taken a nap as well.  After lunch, I finish up whatever school has not been completed and scramble around trying to "clean up school."  No matter how hard I try during the morning, we seem to make an awful mess during the school hours.  Popcorn and disappearing pencils have a lot to do with that.  By 1:30ish, we are ready to get out of the house, either making a trip to the library, the park, or somewhere with friends for a play date. 

After our outing (s), the kids do their chores while I try to get some housework done and start dinner.  This is the hardest part of the day for me (used to be the Pepsi Moment), and honestly I struggle a lot with motivation and energy during this time.  Dinner happens when the Nerd gets home from work, usually around 6:30 pm.  The evening activities usually are a little playtime for the kids, showers for the oldest three and a bath for the baby, teeth brushing (oh the joys!), story reading, and prayer time.  Once in a blue moon this actually goes smoothly, and the kids are asleep by 8:30 pm.  Ha!  Then I've got dinner dishes to do, laundry to fold, a baby to soothe, and school stuff to go over.  By 10:00 pm, I desperately need some down-time.  I'm too tired to focus on anything, especially writing and organizing my thoughts into a blog post.  The Nerd and I try to spend some "quality time" together before bed. 

This is a whole new kind of busy for me.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get everything in and still remain sane.  Maybe I can blog during lunch?